Scaredy Custard…

August 11, 2013

Custard.
We love it.
But I have always been a bit scared of trying to make it.
Well, now I am scared no more.
I have conquered my custard fears, using another recipe from my new favourite recipe book (don’t panic Nigella, I still love you-we are just having a little time apart…) Hungry? from the clever people at Innocent Smoothies.
Hurrah!

And if you want to feel the fear and do it anyway…

This is what you need:

250ml milk

250ml single cream (I used double as I didn’t have any single, and I dare say it would work just as well with 500ml milk…)

seeds of a vanilla pod

2 tbsps golden caster sugar

6 large free range egg yolks (save the whites for meringues, or coconut macaroons-post to come! You can also freeze them if you need to)

This is what you do:

Put the milk, cream, vanilla seeds, vanilla pod and 1 tbsp of sugar in a saucepan over a low heat

Bring to the boil and then take off the heat and allow to cool

Whisk the egg yolks with the remaining tbsp of sugar until pale and creamy

When the milk/cream combo is cool, remove the vanilla pod, and then gradually add the milk to the bowl with the whisked yolks in it whisking as you go (I did this with a hand-held electric mixer and may have over-whisked slightly as it was really quite frothy. It did settle down though!)

Then pour it all back into the saucepan over a low hear and stir with a wooden spoon for 5-10 minutes until it thickens and looks like custard

The instructions say keep the heat low and if you get any lumps sieve them out. I did as I was told, and kept the heat low and kept stirring. I got lots of teeny tiny lumps,but I whisked the liquid with hand whisk for a moment, and they disappeared 🙂

BigSmall said “It tastes just like custard you get from the shops!” And then hastily added “Only better” on seeing my face…

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11 Comments

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Let me know if you like it. Not too lemony, just a hint. You could leave it out if you aren’t keen, I am sure it won’t make a huge difference. Vanilla is probably a better flavour (like your recipe), but I usually have lemons hanging about in the fruit bowl, but usually slim pickings on spare vanilla pods!